


Could You Meet Me Beyond the Grave?

by Kaysigns



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Blind!Deceit, Blind!Emile, Blind!Remy, Cannibalism?, Death, Eye Trauma, Fear, Gore, Kidnapping, M/M, Mentions/Talk of suicide, Multi, Panic Attacks, Willow! AU, anti-villain deceit, because they're willows, blind!Virgil, i've realized that, it depends on your view of him really, it's technically cannibalism, morally-grey deceit, soulmate! AU, that gets explained, they all blind bois, this is kind of a slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-22
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2020-05-16 07:52:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 18,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19313851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaysigns/pseuds/Kaysigns
Summary: After Virgil dies, he comes back to life as an undead creature known as a Willow. As time goes on, he learns how to function this way. Soon Braille begins appearing on his skin, messages from his soulmates. See how they meet, and how they react when they find out what he is.(I'm so bad at summaries I am so sorry)





	1. Prologue pt. 1

I stopped breathing a month ago.

My heart stopped beating a few minutes after.

My brain followed suit.

I was lying in a cold, yet soft, coffin, not daring to move. I was dead, after all. I wouldn’t be able to move if I tried, right? I had only woken up a few moments ago, but I could already tell that something was off. Was this the afterlife? Lying awake in my coffin until my body rotted and turned to dust? I was hoping for something like angels, or reincarnation, or whatever the hell I believed; I never really had a solid belief when I was alive.

I remembered an excruciating pain that had erupted through my eyes the moment I had woken up. It was like I had clawed them out with my fingernails. Phantom pain went through my head, a wince escaping my throat and a twitch going through my hand. But I was dead, wasn’t I? Why could I still feel pain? Why could I move? My breathing hitched, then sped up, and—

Wait. Breathing? That thought alone broke me out of my on-coming panic attack. I could feel my chest rising and falling. This wasn’t right. I knew I had died! I was sure of it!

I had to do something. I slowly opened my eyes. Everything was still just as dark as before. I slowly reached over and put my hand over my heart, waiting desperately for a beat. Nothing. I realized I had stopped breathing again, yet I was still conscious. Weird. I extended my hand up, flinching as I felt the top of the coffin. I pushed at it, feeling it come up only slightly. I pushed harder, feeling the weight of what only felt like a foot of dirt on top. I felt the dirt collapse in as I got the top up all the way, and dug my way through.

Guess I’m a zombie now. I thought bitterly, before feeling my hand break through. The air was cold and crisp. I dug myself the rest of the way out, gripping at what I could only assume was my own grave stone and pulling myself up. I breathed in the winter air, looking around. Everything was still dark. I looked up at the sky, trying to find the moon. Dark. I felt my eyes, only finding horrifically torn open sockets under my fingers, the muscles on my cheeks exposed to the world. I shuddered, pulling my knees up to my chest. What am I supposed to do?

I heard light footsteps on the grass, something I definitely wouldn’t have picked up on before. A scent came through my nose. Human. Well, not exactly human. Something was off about them. I froze as they sat next to me. “I knew there would be something special at the cemetery tonight.”

"W-Who…“ My voice cracked, weak from lack of use. The man chuckled, the sound reverberating through my ears. "I’ve been looking for someone like me for the past a hundred and sixty-nine years. Unfortunately most people like us aren’t able to handle being like this, so they usually off themselves.” I tensed up even more. “How old are you?”

"N-Nineteen. But…who are you? What do you want?“

"Ah, apologies. Where are my manners. You can call me Dee. I was hoping I could take you under my wing. You see, it’s rather lonely spending almost two-hundred years alone. And you are?”

"Virgil…Virgil Sharp.“

I could practically hear his grin as he said, "Pleasure to meet you, Virgil. I’m sure we’ll get along nicely.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello if you're actually interested in this story know that posting will be extremely infrequent, but I do plan to finish this, even if it takes me like three years to.
> 
> also I never make outlines and all of this comes out of my head in the moment because outlines never help me but I hope you like it anyway


	2. Prologue pt. 2 (wow so creative)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I kinda skip around and rush a bit through this part because I wanted to give some basic information about what willows are, who are willows and who aren’t, and the soulmate aspect, but at the same time I wanted to just get to the actual story soooo this happened.

Dee guided me to his tower of a home and sat me down at a table. I heard rustling clothing, the clink of glass hitting another, then liquid pouring into a cup.

“It will take a while for your body to adjust to this new state. I will teach you how to get around and survive.” The glass was placed in front of me “Drink this. Placed at one o'clock.” I reached forward, feeling the ice cold drink. The pungent scent of iron filled my lungs, and I nearly gagged. “It smells like—”

“It’s blood mixed with grape juice. I would have mixed it with vodka, but, well…I’d rather not deal with a drunk minor at the moment.” I couldn’t move, the blood-filled cup trembling in my hands.

“Is something wrong, Virgil? This isn’t upsetting you, is it?”

“N-No.” I mumbled out. Dee hummed, not content with that answer. “Like it or not, you’ll have to get used to this if you want to survive. We can only live off normal food for roughly a week. Any longer than that, and we become mindless killing machines.”

“Pleasant.” I hesitated, the iron scent overwhelming my senses. I gripped the glass and chugged the cold, sticky liquid. Strangely enough, I didn’t automatically gag. It tasted like nothing.

Before I knew it, the glass was empty. Dee sighed. “That should hold you over for the day. Tomorrow I’ll give you some flesh, alright?” I went silent, not wanting to think about what that meant. “I have enough in the fridge to last you a month. I’ll be teaching you how to hunt on your own in that time.”

I shuddered. “Please don’t call it that.”

As soon as I said that, I felt the danger in the air. “Well then, do tell me Virgil, what would you like to call it? Because like it or not, that’s what it is.”

“Do I really have to…kill people?”

“That you do.” I heard him move, and a hand was placed on my shoulder. “Humans are like cattle to us, Virgil. Unless you’d rather die again, you better lose that compassion you have for them.” I gulped, his hand feeling as though it was burning my skin. “I’m not going to let you die, Virgil. But if you truly feel like you won’t be able to survive like this, I will…show you mercy and end this life as quickly as possible.”

I hate to admit that the offer was tempting. If I had to kill dozens of people in order for me—someone who had already died—to continue living…it just seemed wrong in so many ways. Not to mention I would have to hide away for the rest of my life.

But the fear of the unknown controlled me. What kind of afterlife did a worthless nobody like me go to? Was there even an afterlife? What if—

The snapping in my ear broke me out of my spiral. Dee sighed. “Whatever choice you make, I’ll support it. Just be sure of your decision by tomorrow.”  
Dee gently took me by the hand and stood me up. “I’ll take you to your room. I want you to try to memorize the layout of the tower, though. You can use my cane.” He lead me up a set of stairs, my hand gripping tightly onto the banister. A door opened in front of me, and I was soon sitting on a bed.

“Get some rest. I’ll be leaving my cane to your left, propped against the night stand. Take it and make your way downstairs tomorrow. Understand?” I gulped, mentally retracing my steps down the hall and staircase. Easier said than done.

“Hey…Dee? Could I ask you something?”

I heard his footsteps coming closer, then a weight next to me on the bed. “You can ask me anything.”

“What are we? How come we’re both blind? Why are we like this?” Dee goes silent. Just when I’m sure he’ll just get up and leave, I hear,

“We are willows, undead creatures born from tortured souls. The worse your life was, the more horrifically your eyes are scratched out.” I hear movement, then feel him take my hand. He brought my fingers up to his face and made me feel.

I felt sick to my core. The entire left side of his face was nothing but exposed muscles. I felt the fingers on his other hand gently running over my exposed muscles, inspecting them.

“You’ve suffered. Not as much as me, but definitely enough for a lifetime.” I gulped, feeling his fingers go down to my neck, tracing a line across my throat. I froze. “Self-inflicted, I assume?” He hummed, “That must make this afterlife rather difficult.”

“Could we not—”

“I can imagine how difficult this life must be for someone who wanted to end theirs.” I felt my hand trembling as he let go, allowing it to fall limply into my lap. “I won’t ask any further.” He stood up, walking to the door. “Get some sleep. You’ll need as much rest as you can get for tomorrow. Tomorrow, I’ll teach you everything I know.”

The door closed. Dee was gone. I calmed my pounding heart, running a hand across the soft mattress under me. I couldn’t help but wonder what kinds of things Dee would teach me. How to function blind and how to…hunt…but what else? I exhaled sharply, lying down and curling up in the fetal position under the blankets. I forced my thoughts away, and attempted to sleep.

 

From then on, Dee and I had stuck together. Together for 31 years. To be completely honest, I thought that I would be dead decades ago, either from hunting or by my own hands. Only three years after becoming this…creature…strange bumps in the same patterns as Braille began appearing on my arms. “Uhh…Dee? What’re these?” I had asked. He thought for a moment, before his grip tightened slightly. “Your soulmates.”

My throat tightened. “Pretend to be human for now. They’re destined to become willows eventually.”

I hoped they never would.

 

Later on we met others willing to survive like this: Remy and his soulmate Emile two years later. I continued talking to my soulmates. Dee never allowed me to meet them, saying that I would be able to tell when they turned into willows, and I hadn’t gotten whatever that sign was yet.

I was nervous to meet them even if they did turn. What if they were like others, who couldn’t stomach the idea of killing or eating a human being to survive? Patton seemed to be that way. What if they were horrified or disgusted by how long I had been doing this, and tried to kill me? That seemed on-par with Roman. What if they realized the danger of having us horrific monsters roaming around and sided with their humanity? There goes Logan. Three obvious problems that I had thought about myself countless times, and I’ve lost all three of my soulmates.

That’s why the day we met came as such a shocker.


	3. Chapter 1—Meeting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil, Dee, Remy, and Emile meet Roman at the store. Dee goes extreme big brother mode

I double-checked the sunglasses covering my eyes and the scarf covering my cheeks before running down the hall towards Remy and Emile’s room. “Are you guys ready yet? We’ve been waiting for like an hour!” Emile giggled, and I heard his footsteps pad over to me. “Yeah, Remy’s not getting up. I think he died again.” I blinked, processing that for a moment.

“Did he use his sleeping gas on himself again?”

“Pretty sure.”

“Oh for the love of—” I walked over to their bed and felt around for a moment, locating Remy’s cold body and shoving him off onto the even colder, unforgiving floor. His yelp of surprise turned into a whine of pain in seconds. “Come on, Rem. We gotta restock, and we need you there.” Remy groaned. “Lemme just say, that was not cool of you babe. Not cool at all.” I nudged him with my foot, forcing him to roll away.

“Would you rather have me shock you?” I asked with a grin. That got him up.

“Fine, fine. I’m going. I’ll meet you downstairs in a few, alright, babe?” I waited a few moments, making sure I heard him actually getting ready, before walking out and down the staircase. Dee smelled like he was waiting by the doorway. “Virgil, finally. Where are Emy and Rem?”

“Remy slept in and Emile let him.” Dee took a deep breath. “I suppose we aren’t really dealing with a time constraint for now.” He spoke loud enough to be heard throughout the tower. One minute later, Remy and Emile were practically falling down the stairs. “Hey, Dee-Dee! Sorry we’re late!” Emile said with a laugh.

“Yeah, it was all Virgey’s fault, babe. You see he—” I tapped at Remy’s arm, sending a light electrical current through him. “Choose your next words wisely, Sleeping Beauty.” I could practically feel Remy’s pout.

We walked down the street, sunglasses hiding our torn open eye sockets and scarves hiding mine and Dee’s torn up cheeks, our canes leading the way to the store we often restocked (or rather, robbed) from. I heard Dee, Emile, and Remy begin a conversation, one that I could tell was meant solely for the three soulmates, so I reached into my pocket and pulled out some earbuds, hooking them up to my phone and using the text-to-speech to text my boyfriends. Dee had advised against me doing such a thing, worried that I might give away something about us, but after a bit of time, I had convinced him it was safe enough for me to talk to them.

The three of them had met on their own, and had expressed their desire to meet me in person. I had told them I wasn’t ready yet, over and over. After a while, they moved in with each other, happily living together. While I was waiting for them to die. My fingers twitched just thinking about it. I hated it.

Logan sent some kind of grocery list in the group chat. Looks like they were going shopping, too. Except they had actual money to buy this stuff. And they were buying actual food, like any normal human would. Dee plucked out one of my earbuds. “Your soulmates are still human, I suppose?” I gulped.

“Yeah.” He hesitated, before letting out a hum and saying, “Give it a bit more time.”

We had reached the store, deciding to split off. Dee went with Emile, and I went with Remy. Once we were no longer able to smell or hear Dee, Remy grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me with him to some unknown location.

“Wha—Remy! Let go!”

“Calm down, Virgey! I just wanna get some perfume, then we can get the stuff Dee wants us to!” As we turned a corner into a new aisle, my nose wrinkled as it was assaulted by several different scents of flowers, vanilla, and cinnamon. “Ugh…Remy, why are you buying this shit? It’s so…strong.” Now I was relying solely on my cane and hearing, my nose completely out of commission. Remy snickered evilly.

“You wanna know why I like this? Cuz it confuses the living hell outta Deespacito over there. I wear some perfume, and he has no idea what’s going on. He relies so much on his sense of smell, it’s ridiculous.” I heard a light clink of bottles hitting each other as Remy searched through them, trying to find one he might like. I huffed, walking down the aisle, running a hand across the bottles as I passed by.

“Hey, Rem? I’m gonna check out the next aisle.” I heard a hum of disinterest, so I took that as a “go ahead”. I turned the corner into the next aisle, and immediately collided harshly with someone. I heard a shatter of glass as the two of us fell, the scent of perfume growing even stronger. “Ow! Watch where you’re going!” The stranger whined. I hissed in response.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’ll definitely look where I’m going next time. Oh, wait! There’s one problem! Can your thick skull figure it out?” My panicking mind registered the fact that my scarf had slipped down below my nose. I quickly readjusted, hoping to whatever god was up there that no one saw the torn open skin. I felt the stranger studying me, before I heard him shift and say, “Wait…I’d know that voice anywhere.” I gulped, taking in the smooth tone, the very slight British accent, and matching it to a certain human I had heard over the phone many times before. “R-Roman?” I screeched, my throat tightening. “Ah, Virgil, my love! It appears we have finally met!”

I started searching around for my cane, realizing I had likely flung it at Roman in a form of self-defense, before a hand grabbed mine. “Careful! The perfume bottle shattered everywhere. What do you need?”

“C-Cane.” I mumbled out. I heard him shift, grabbing it and placing it gently in my hands. I held it to myself like a child holds their teddy bear. His eyes were on me again.

“Why are you all covered up like that? The sunglasses, I think I can understand. Logan’s gone on rants explaining how some blind people are sensitive to light. But the scarf? It’s like a million degrees out there! What is wrong with you?” I laughed awkwardly, answering, “A lot of things.”

He shifted again, before I heard what sounded like him standing up. “Here. Allow me to help you up, Stormcloud. I’ll pay for the broken bottle.” I tentatively held my hand out, feeling his warm, lively hands wrap around my cold-as-death counterpart. It was such a strange feeling. The only warmth I ever got from people were from my victims, who would die soon after and begin to lose their warmth. I blinked rapidly, forcing myself not to compare Roman of all people to one of my victims.

“So…now that we’re here together…why don’t you come with me? I could take you to Logan and Patton, we could get some coffee and—” I heard three sets of footsteps walk down the aisle Remy had been in. “Virgil!” I flinched at the sound of Dee’s voice. Him, Emile, and Remy came over, Dee’s hand grabbing tightly onto mine. “This is one of your soulmates, I presume?”

“…Yeah.” Dee sighed, tugging lightly on my arm. “I’m sorry, truly, I am. But we have to leave now. Isn’t that right, Virgil?” I nodded.

“Yeah. M-Maybe some other time, Ro.” After you’ve died. I smiled at Roman. “See you later, Princey.” He hesitated.

“Alright. I understand.” He spoke surprisingly quiet, before changing into his fake bravado. “Farewell, Virgil! I’ll make sure to tell the others just how handsome you are!” I felt a smile directed back at me, a warm, yet empty feeling growing in my stomach. Dee led me down the aisle away from Roman.

“Sorry, Virge. I overheard you talking to that guy, and I realized he was your soulmate, so I got excited and told Dee and Em. Kinda forgot about the whole "human” thing.“ I hummed quietly.

"It’s fine. I…didn’t really wanna stay there, either. Too much of a risk.”

We finished up our “shopping”, stuffing things like a lighter, some instant coffee, knives, and other useful items into our backpacks, until Dee told us we were done. We ran out the door, security guards chasing us and one of the clerks calling the police. I grabbed the humans closer to us and sent a strong volt through each of them, while Remy took care of the ones farther away, sending blasts of knock-out gas out at them.

We reached the tower safely, Remy and I collapsing onto the couch while Emile and Dee took care of our supplies. It was silent for a moment, before Remy piped up, saying, “Well, at least if we see your soulmate again, you’ll know it’s him without even needing to hear him, right?” I was about to answer, when I realized:

I had never gotten a good fix on what his scent was. I was too caught up in the moment, and the perfume had masked anything strong.

The only thing I had learned from that experience was how nice it felt to touch a living human being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i honestly didn't expect any feedback whatsoever from the first two chapters, then saw that i had a few comments and flipped out. apparently ao3 is very different from tumblr lel  
> Btw I need a better name for this other than Willow!Virgil, so feel free to have fun with that


	4. Chapter 2—Virgil Tries to Meet the Others (and fails miserably)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The chapter in which Dee goes overprotective big brother mode and becomes a slight romantic cock-block

I woke up in the middle of the night to a prickling feeling running down my arm. I sat up, feeling the Braille as it formed. Looks like Roman was up at, I checked my clock, three in the morning again. I pulled out my pen, reading what he had written. When Roman’s writing something at absurd times in the morning, it’s usually meant for me.

“That guy at the store…who was that?”

“Which guy?”

“The one that led you away from me. Who said you had to leave.”

“Oh, that was Dee.” There was a pause for a moment. I couldn’t help but wonder if he had passed out, before I felt more Braille form.

“…He doesn’t harm you in any way, does he?” I blinked.

“No, of course not! He’s basically my big brother. What made you think that?”

“Sorry, it’s just…he seems a bit controlling is all. I mean, you’re a grown man, and yet he’s forcing you away from us! I mean, what do you have to fear?”  _A lot of things_. I closed my eyes and wrote back. “Dee’s overprotective, sure. But he’s overprotective for a good reason. Get some sleep, alright?”

“…Alright. I love you, Stormcloud.”

“I love you, too.”

The next morning Roman and I had wiped away our conversation, only for it to be immediately replaced with Patton’s excited scribbles, detailing a date at the mall they would be having, as well as his usual add-on asking me if I could go. This time I hesitated with my usual  _“not yet”_. I sat on the couch with Emile and Dee as reruns of Avatar the Last Airbender played on the TV.

It wouldn’t hurt if I just went to the mall to meet them this once, right? So long as they didn’t find out I was a Willow. All I have to do is wear those sunglasses and my scarf, and they won’t suspect a thing. Roman didn’t ask about the sunglasses last time, and I could just make up an excuse for the scarf.

The problem was sneaking out of the tower without Dee knowing. Luckily enough, I knew someone who knew exactly how to do that.

“Hey, where’s Remy?” I asked, looking in the direction of Emile. He hummed, thinking. “Last I saw him he was in bed dealing with the aftermath of that shot of red bull and coffee grounds.” I snickered, remembering last night when we had all begged him to put it down, with him of course not listening and downing three shots of the stuff before throwing up, and doing it again. “Oh, that reminds me! I should probably head up and get him some more water.”

“I’ll do that.” I stood up, grabbing a water bottle from our supply and heading upstairs. I opened the door to Emile and Remy’s room, being greeted by a loud, obnoxious groan. “We told you last night that this would happen. Did you listen? No! No, you didn’t! Pay the price, bitch.”

“Oh, shut up, you sleep-deprived raccoon. It’s not like you haven’t done this before.”

“That’s not the point.” I handed him the bottle of water, sitting at the edge of his bed. I hesitated for a moment. “I could use some help.” I asked quietly.

I heard him sit up, leaning closer to me. “What do ya need, babe?”

“I…I want to see my soulmates.” The silence in the air was painful. I counted the seconds it took for him to process that.

“Look, Virgey, Dee’s been trying to protect you for, what? 31 years? I get being excited about meeting your soulmates but…you saw how Dee felt about it earlier. Just wait until they’re Willows, too, okay? Besides, I don’t wanna betray him like this. I love Dee-Dee, and—”

“Come on, Rem, please? Just this once? They’re already older than me, and if they die when they’re like forty without me talking to them in person before then that’s just gonna be really weird to think about and I mean sure I’m technically 50 when they’re in their mid-twenties, but I’m biologically 19 and I don’t know how this works and—”

“Okay okay! Calm down, gurl. Take a breather! Yeah, age when dealing with basically-immortal beings dating mortals is weird to think about.”

“Like seriously, how the hell did you and Emile manage to die at the perfect time to make the two of you biologically the same age as Dee?” Remy laughed. “Luck and perfection, Virgey. Luck and perfection.” There was silence for a moment, before Remy sighs, his arm wrapping around my shoulders. “I’ll help you meet them.” He then dramatically collapsed on the bed. “Now if only I could get rid of this sickness I feel in my stomach!”

“Get over yourself, Willows can’t get sick like that.” Remy whined. “You’re no fun!” He giggled, then sat back up. “Alrighty, now here’s the plan.”

“Where are you two going?” I held back a shudder at Dee’s words, his suspicious tone. Remy smirked next to me. “Don’t worry, babe, we were just heading out to hunt. I’m not feeling all too good still, so Virgey agreed to come with me.”

“Only to make sure you don’t knock yourself unconscious with your damn sleeping gas.” I muttered just loud enough for Dee to hear, just as Remy had told me to. Remy pretended to act offended.

“Ah, very well then.” Dee spoke. I couldn’t read his emotions, something that put me a bit on-edge. “Be careful, okay you two?” Emile asked, running over. I heard the sounds of him and Remy kissing. “I will, don’t worry, babe. I’ll make sure Virgey’s nice and safe.” We walked out of the tower in silence.

“Holy crap we actually did it.” I whispered once we were all the way out of the forest surrounding the tower. Remy laughed joyously. “What did I tell you?” I gulped. “This is the first time I’ve really gone against him.” Remy paused, letting out a small breath in disbelief. “31 years. And you never tried to go all ‘teenage rebellion’ on him?”

“Fuck no! Have you seen him when he’s upset?” Remy hummed.

“I always found him shrieking to be kind of hilarious.”

“You’re weird, man.”

“No you.”

I ran a hand across the Braille on my arms. I had told my soulmates that I’d be able to go if we had the date be at sunset. After the expected vampire jokes from Roman, they all excitedly agreed. Now I just hoped that I wouldn’t have to go back on this.

We reached the mall and stepped inside. They had said they would be waiting on the first floor, near the escalators. After Remy asked a security guard for some directions, we began to head over. “I can feel you vibrating.”

“I’m not vibrating.” I say as I nervously adjust my scarf for the umpteenth time.

“Mhm. Sure you aren’t.”

The mall was a lot busier than I would have expected so late at night. It was possible there was some kind of event happening, but considering we never really went to the mall, I didn’t know for sure. All I knew was that all the loud people and their different scents all melding together…it was quite overwhelming. I took a deep breath, calming myself down a bit. I had a feeling we were almost there.

Someone then grabbed me by the hand and pulled me to a halt. “What are you doing here?” I held back a yelp, Dee whispering harshly into my ear. Remy laughed nervously. “Dee! Em-Em! Hey…” Dee sighed, pulling me in the opposite direction. “Come on, we’re going home.”

“Dee! Let go!”

“Explain what exactly you are doing here.”

“I…I just wanted to see my soulmates. Just once, I was gonna be extra careful.” Dee groaned.

“Virgil, you are acting like an impatient child. Wait until they die and turn. Otherwise you could put all of us in danger. Is that understood?”

“Dee—”

“Is that. Understood?” I sighed. “Yeah. Got it.”

I let Dee guide me out of the mall, feeling Remy and Emile next to me. Emile grabbed my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. “I’m sorry, Virgey.” We got back to the tower, Remy and Emile lying on the couch, Emile humming softly. Dee sighed and pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry, Virgil. I’m just trying to look out for you. Please, just be patient, okay?” I nodded, allowing him to hold me for a few more moments, before he pulled away. “Let’s watch some TV before heading to bed, how about that?”

“…Sounds good.”

 

_I heard the shatter of a plate downstairs, and felt the terror coursing through my veins. My heart was pounding as I curled up in the closet, covering my ears as tears streaked my cheeks. Screaming came from the kitchen, and another plate shattered. I felt my blood go cold as I heard the loud **THUD THUD THUD**  of boots stomping up the stairs. I wiped away my tears frantically, holding my breath. I bit my finger, holding back a whimper as my bedroom door swung open. My father pillaged through my room, before he stopped._

_The footsteps came over to the closet, the doors thrown open. I felt my shirt being grabbed at the front, and I was lifted off the ground._

 

I shot up in bed, gasping for breath. I clutched at my chest, a strange relief going through me when I didn’t feel a heartbeat. I waited until I stopped shaking, before slowly standing up and heading out of my room in the tower. I ran a hand across the wall, feeling the next door down and opening it, slipping inside. I walked over to the bed and lied down, curling up next to Dee. I felt him stir, before he sighed and muttered, “Another nightmare?” I nodded into his chest.

He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer and running a soothing hand through my hair. “Stay as long as you need.”

I fell asleep to the cold of his body and the silence of his heart.

 

_Dee ran a hand through Virgil’s hair, contemplating Virgil’s sudden change in behavior. He met one of his soulmates, then ran off to try and meet the rest. Dee sighed, hugging Virgil closer. “If this happens again,” he thought, “I may need to take some…extra measures.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remy was a lot of fun to write in this  
> btw I'll probably be changing the name of this from Willow!Virgil by the time I get out the next chapter so be prepared for that


	5. Chapter 3—Cafes and Consequences

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil nearly gets caught, and now must deal with the results of his actions. Meanwhile, Roman, Patton, and Logan have a lovely date at a cafe!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year everybody! Now that I've pushed through this chapter I'm hoping I'll be able to get out chapters more frequently, but idk we'll see. This story does get a bit dark, but I'm definitely planning on making it a little bit lighter than I had originally made it because at this point I'd feel bad making Dee as much of a villain as I had originally planned him to be

Roman slowly stirred his drink, the ice clinking against the sides of the glass. He then groaned, letting his head fall to the table. "How long is he gonna make us wait?"

"It's been five minutes, Roman."

"It feels like it's been forever!" Patton giggled, patting Roman on the head. "Give him time, he said he'll be here!"

"He says that all the time now." Roman grumbled. "I mean come on, Patton! He tells us he'll be here and then ten minutes after he's supposed to be here he says he can't come! He continuously gets our hopes up then just pummels them into the ground!" Patton hesitated, looking out at the streets hopefully. "Just...give him time—"

"We've given him a whole month! Every date we talk about, he's always like "Oh I'll be there, I'll finally grace you with my likely very handsome face" and then he's a no-show! I mean, come on! He, he keeps...ghosting us! That's the word! He's a professional ghost!"

"Roman, what are you even—"

"You've gotta agree with me, Lo! He's being weird." Logan rolled his eyes, taking a long sip of his coffee to establish dominance. "He has been acting particularly odd recently, I can't disagree with that, Roman. However, we have always known him as a rather strange person. He does tend to procrastinate and worry about things until it's too late for him to make a proper decision. This is our fourth date since Virgil began doing this, so—"

"So he has to show up today!" Patton interjected. "I mean, one more time would be just crazy, right?" Roman thought it over for a moment, before sighing and nodding his head. "You have a point, darling. I suppose I can wait a bit longer." Logan opened his mouth to speak, before sighing and sitting back in his chair in resignation.

They sat in silence for a moment, before they heard a yelp from outside. Patton furrowed his eyebrows, listening curiously. "Hey! Watch where you're—" The person seemed to freeze, then only a few seconds later a second person screamed in terror, and a man ran past the cafe window as fast as humanly possible, horror painted across his face. The three stared wide-eyed as he passed, before Roman turned to Logan. "What do you think that was about?" Logan hummed, taking a sip from his coffee. "I haven't the slightest idea."

"Hey guys, is it just me, or did that first guy sound kinda like Vee?" Roman's eyebrows raised, before he shrugged. "Virgil making someone scream in fear? It does match his aesthetic. But no, that...probably wasn't him." Patton shrugged, resting his chin on his hand as they continued to wait.

 

A lecture from Dee was the last thing I wanted at the moment. Granted, I never wanted lectures from Dee, but this time was especially irritating. "You can't just run off like that hopelessly chasing after your soulmates, Virgil! You nearly got caught this time!"

"Dee, I—"

"Go to your room! This whole situation is ridiculous!"

"Are you seriously sending me to my room? I'm not a child and you're not my mom. I'll go to my room if I want to." I shoved my hands into my pockets, standing up and making my way to the stairs. I heard Dee's frustrated groan as I stormed up, shoving my door open and slamming it shut. I collapsed onto my bed, running a hand down my face. I knew I had screwed up, but it's not like I was gonna admit that to Dee.

There was a knock at my door, followed quickly by it opening, Emile's scent drifting into the room. "Dee's been pretty uptight recently, huh?"

"Ever since I started trying to meet them."

"He is a bit...controlling. I've been suspecting it's just overprotectiveness taken to the extreme, I mean...he does care a lot about you." There was a short silence as we both collected our thoughts. Emile sighed. "What exactly happened this time?"

"I...tried to meet up with them at this cafe in the middle of town. Then there was this one...asshole who kicked at my leg and made me lose my balance. I just barely stopped myself from falling on my face. Then I turned to him with a full speech on how much I hated him for doing that when I realized that my scarf had slipped down my neck and my sunglasses had slipped down my nose. All my exposed muscles and missing eyes and shit were, well...exposed. He must've seen them 'cause I heard him scream and run off. Then Dee grabbed me and dragged me back here." Emile had moved to sit next to me on the bed. I rubbed one of the blankets between my fingers, the motion soothing in a way. "We're lucky he was probably the only one who saw. No one's gonna believe one guy saying that he saw a man with his skin torn open and no eyes. At least that's what Remy said when we were fighting."

Emile sighed, gently rubbing circles into my hand with his thumb. "Why don't you get some rest, Lapis? If you want, I could have Remy come give you some of his sleeping gas." I wrinkled my nose. "Fuck no! That stuff smells awful! Plus, he always uses way too much on me, I can just tell." Emile hummed in agreement, giving my hand a small squeeze before he stood up. "Well, try to get some sleep anyway, Vee."

"Thanks, Em." I muttered, sighing as I heard my door close and his footsteps walk away. I lied down in bed, picked up a marker, and began writing my fourth apology letter to my soulmates onto my arms.

 

Emile walked downstairs, smelling Dee and Remy on the couch. "Vee's not doing too well, Dee."

"I know." Dee groaned. "It's just...I don't know what to do about him!" Emile sat down on his left, Remy on his right, preparing himself for the rant that Dee had definitely been in need of for a long time. "I understand why he'd be so insistent on meeting them; I, admittedly, wanted to meet you two more than anything when I first found out about you. Virgil can attest to that. But...all the danger he's putting himself in, and he doesn't even know—"

Dee slapped a hand over his mouth, eyes wide. Remy gently tapped Dee's leg. "Doesn't know what, babe?" Dee slowly uncovered his mouth, his hands trembling slightly. "N-Nothing, Remy."

"Aw come on, you can tell us!" Emile said with a smile. Dee took a deep breath, carefully taking his hat off and cradling it to his chest. "His soulmates aren't becoming Willows."

"What?"

"Think about it Emile! The three of us died at the same biological age because we're soulmates! Virgil's biologically 19! His soulmates are 28! They're going to die and pass on into whatever kind of afterlife there is while Virgil will be stuck here with us! And when he finds out about that, he's going to be absolutely heartbroken! That is exactly why he can never find out!"

"How do you know soulmates have to be the same age to be Willows? I mean, we don't really know if someone'll be a Willow until they—"

"I've been around for 200 years, Emile. I've seen this before, with other Willows. I've noticed the pattern. Soulmates who both become Willows are always the same biological age when they die. Those that aren't the same age," Dee sighed, "they do exactly what Virgil's doing now, and they always either get killed or heartbroken." Emile pointed his head to the ground, lips pressed together in thought.

"Why don't we give Virgil's soulmates a try? You know, as humans?"

Remy snorted. "You kiddin', Emy? What kinda human falls in love with people who eat humans? Who aren't cannibals or murderers? I mean, come on babe, it took us months to get used to Dee, and we were Willows when we met him."

"If Virgil goes with them he may have to re-integrate into human society." Dee mumbled, eyes wide with the realization. "He'd have to leave the tower for good if he does somehow end up living with his soulmates. They're human, they still have to live normal human lives." Emile felt the fear radiating off Dee as he continued mumbling to himself. He slowly put a hand on Dee's back, rubbing steady circles in hopes of calming him down. "Is there any way we could make them into Willows?"

Dee shook his head. "Willows are born from suffering; they'd have to be put through quite a lot to become like us. It might be too late anyway." Emile suddenly felt his emotions alter completely, Dee going silent as he thought. Remy seemed to tell something was different as well, as he asked, "You okay, Dee-Dee?" Dee was silent for a bit longer, before taking a deep breath, saying, "I'm fine. I just...need to take a walk. I'll be back in a few hours." With that, he grabbed his scarf, sunglasses, and cane, then exited the tower. Emile strained his ears as he listened to him leave, not liking the aura he had been giving off.

 

It had been roughly forty minutes since Dee had taken Virgil out of the city. As per usual, his soulmates' date would last roughly two to four hours, and Virgil would have finished his apology by now. Still plenty of time to put his plan into action. While it was definitely one of the worst plans he had made, it was worth a shot. He just hoped Virgil would never realize what he was doing. And if he did find out, Dee hoped he'd realize he was doing it for him.

He felt his skin itch and tingle as he shape-shifted into Virgil. He had never understood why they had gotten these powers when they became Willows, but they had definitely helped him in the past, and would definitely help him now.

Dee entered the city, subconsciously making himself smaller as he navigated through the crowds of people, forcing himself not to take in their scents as he headed to his destination. He found the place he had grabbed Virgil and pulled him to safety, then continued walking a bit further.

Roman stared glumly out the window, feeling Patton writing out a response to Virgil's apology. "How many times is he gonna do this?" He mumbled. Logan sighed, paying for their food and standing up. "Perhaps we should just head home? We could, possibly, stop by that new dog park if either of you happen to be interested?" Patton perked up immediately, smiling at Logan, trying his best not to show just how upset he was. "Sounds great, Lolo!" Roman chuckled at his enthusiasm, not taking his eyes away from the window.

That's when he saw a familiar black and purple hoodie, dyed purple hair, and white cane. Roman jerked upright, staring wide-eyed as the man walked past so casually. "That's Virgil!" He whispered.

"What?"

"From when I bumped into him at the store! It's him!" Roman stood up, grabbing Logan and Patton by the hands as he pulled them all out of the cafe. "He's not getting away this time." Once out of the store, he jogged over and grabbed "Virgil" by the shoulder. "Virgil" jumped, before spinning around.

"What is your problem? You give us an apology saying you couldn't come, and now here you are! Why didn't you just—"

"Hey, hey, Roman! I'm sorry, okay?" Dee disguised as Virgil shouted, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm not really supposed to be here anyway, but...I wanted to show you something. I... _ need _ to show you something." He purposely made his voice softer, so as to gain their sympathy.

"Oh, sure thing Vee! What is it?" Patton asked.

"Follow me." Logan furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you sure you know where you're going?"

"I have this part of the city memorized, L. Don't worry about it." Logan seemed perfectly ready to ask a few more questions, but held off, instead watching with suspicion. Dee led the three humans to the edge of the city, then to the edge of a forest. "So...where are we going?" Roman asked hesitantly.

"You'll see." Logan, walking behind everyone else, fished a blue pen from his pocket. He wrote a simple question on his arm:  _ “Virgil, what are you up to right now?” _ The first odd thing about it was that Roman and Patton had instinctively checked their arms, feeling the familiar itch as Logan wrote. So why didn't Virgil check? After a few more minutes of walking, "Virgil" stopped, turning around to face them. "We're here." Logan felt writing forming on his arm. He glanced down to see Virgil's purple handwriting. Where was Virgil's pen?

Dee took his time memorizing their scents, figuring out as much as he could about them, before allowing himself to stop. He let go of his disguise, shifting back into his normal self as Logan said "That's not Virgil" just a few seconds too late. He sensed Roman come closer, blocking a punch to his face and ducking as Roman tried to make a second blow. He grabbed Roman by the head, slamming it against a tree. Roman went limp, falling to the ground. Patton screamed, being quickly muffled as Dee charged both him and Logan, knocking them down to the ground and choking them until they went unconscious. He took a deep breath, tying the three up and sneaking them back into the tower, dropping them into the most secure room in the building.  _ Anything for Virgil's sake. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw with that previous random fluff chapter I had posted before, I'm gonna put that either at the end of this story once I've finished or create a new collection where I can just post random one-shots like that that are correlated to this story so ye


	6. Chapter 4—Humans in the Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil wakes up to see the humans Dee had captured in the castle

I woke up slowly in the morning, running my hand across the Braille on my arm. The messages we had written last night were still there, to my surprise. It was usually gone by the time I woke up, Logan usually having the others wash it off before going to bed. I stood up, stretching a bit as I walked downstairs. Seems like Dee, Emile, and Remy were all gathered in one place, a room that none of us really used; it was really just used for storage. I heard them muttering to each other, too quiet for me to really make out.

I opened the door, immediately being smacked in the face by an assortment of scents. Human scents. “Dee? What’s going on?”

“Ah, good morning, Virgil. Did you sleep well?” Dee came a bit closer, seeming to step away from one of the humans. “I mean, yeah. But why’re there a bunch of humans here?”

“Dee thought it would be a good idea to...hold onto a couple of humans for in case we have problems hunting.” Emile spoke slowly, as if afraid of my response. One of the humans tried to speak, only to be muffled by whatever was covering his mouth.

“So you kidnapped some humans.”

“Well I wouldn’t call it kidnapping.” Dee muttered. “It’s only logical to do this Virgil. There are four of us, don’t you think four humans dying around the same area at around the same time is rather suspicious?”

“Don’t you think three humans going missing would also be suspicious?” Dee sighed, taking me gently by the shoulder and leading me out of the room. “Well, there’s no real point in letting them go now, is there? They’ve already seen us, there’s no going back now.” I opened my mouth to complain, before giving up with a groan. Once Dee makes up his mind on something, there was no going back.

“Who did you kidnap anyway?”

“No need to worry about that, Virgil. Besides, names can make people get rather attached.” Emile and Remy followed behind hesitantly.

 

Roman watched Virgil leave with wide eyes. He glanced over to Patton, then Logan, both looking just as shocked and terrified.

The image of Virgil’s empty eye sockets and horrifically torn open skin was burned into his mind. It definitely made the whole scarf and sunglasses ordeal make a lot more sense, but it also brought up way more questions than answers.

Roman studied the room they were in. It was rather dark, with only a window as a source of light. He saw Logan trying to get closer to it, but it was too high up for any of them to reach. Patton came closer to him, dropping his head onto Roman’s shoulder. Roman sighed, trying his best to relax into the familiar motion. For now they would have to wait.

 

“I still don’t really think this is a good idea, Dee.” I grumbled. Emile had tried to distract me with some random cartoon he had found, but it didn’t lessen my anxiety all too much. Something was up about this; I just couldn’t place what. I stared in the direction of the television, it sounding just like static in my ears.

“Maybe you don’t see the logic behind it just yet, but you will.” Dee said with what I could tell was fake confidence.

“Just try and cheer up, Sparky. It’s not like this is gonna kill you.”

“You don’t know that, Remy.” I argued. “What if those humans escape? Then they’ll tell the police about us. Even if the police doesn’t believe them, chances are they’ll still check out the tower. And then they’ll see us and we’ll have to deal with them and-”

“Okay Vee, time to breathe.” Emile said with a small chuckle, rubbing soothing circles into my arm. I took a shaky breath, nodding. “Sorry. I just...feel weird about this, alright? I mean sure, we’ve killed a lot of people in the past, and sure what we do is already really fucked up. But kidnapping? Seriously? That’s what we’re gonna devolve into doing?”

“I mean, to be fair, this isn’t the first time I’ve kidnapped someone.” I turned in Dee’s direction, my eyebrows furrowing as I tried to find a lie in his words. Finding none, I shouted, “You  _ what _ ?”

“I’ve been alive for 200 years Virgil. Do you really think I haven’t kidnapped someone before? I tried it once and realized it was rather beneficial; it can prevent us from losing control if we haven’t been able to hunt for a while. So I thought...with so many of us here now, perhaps it would be for the best.” I crossed my arms, not willing to say out loud if I thought he was right or not. I listened to the cartoon for a bit longer, hearing a fight scene playing out. My anxiety just continued to build.

I stood up and headed to the stairs, shoving my hands into my pockets with a huff. “Uh, Virge? Where you going?” Emile asked. “I’m headin’ to my room. Got a new audiobook to read.” When I reached the stairs, I hesitated, glancing over to the room where the humans were being kept. I gulped, pulling myself back and grabbing the bannister, making my way up.  _ Maybe I’ll talk to them tonight. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was really short but the next one's gonna be pretty long. I can just feel it. IN MY BONES


	7. Chapter 5—Dilemma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil tries to communicate with the humans, and Remy and Emile discover the truth

Once Dee, Emile, and Remy had fallen asleep, I slipped out of my room, walking silently down the stairs. I slowly turned the knob of the door, listening closely. Two of the humans were asleep, while the third was awake.

I took account of their scents. The one that was awake smelled like peaches and cinnamon. The one on their left smelled sweet, like they took a bath in sugar water. The one on their right smelled of books and lemon, a surprisingly calming scent coming from a human. The one that was awake growled at me to the best of their ability.

“Relax, will ya? I’m not here to kill you or anything.” I sat in front of them, hearing the other two slowly wake up. I considered taking off the cloth covering their mouths and actually having a proper conversation with them.

But then I thought back to what Dee had told me all those times about how humans react to Willows; how they’re terrified of us—or in this case, maybe just furious that they’re being held here against their will. The thought of being screamed at and called names by these humans made me flinch.

I stuffed my hands into my pockets. How would I be able to communicate with them any other way? I bit at my lip, the silence only making me more anxious. I stared down at the ground, taking a deep breath to calm myself. Coming up with an idea, I said, “I’m gonna ask a few questions. You’re gonna answer them. Got that?” I hesitantly took the sweet-smelling human’s hands, tied tightly together at their wrists. The human tensed up, before forcing themself to relax a bit. “Tap on my hand once for yes, twice for no. Okay?” After a few seconds, I felt a tap.

“Good.” I took a shallow breath, all my questions suddenly leaving my head as I felt the warmth of a living human’s hands against my skin. It felt so familiar, but the warmth took it to a completely different level. It felt completely different from when Dee would hold my hands.

I forced my thoughts away from that, refocusing back on my questions. “So...do you know what I am?” Two taps. “Do you want to know?” There was a moment of hesitation. Then they tapped once. I hummed. Typical human curiosity.

“I’m a Willow. Have you ever heard that term?” Two taps. “We’re kinda like zombies, kinda like ghouls. We eat humans and have our own...special powers that we get when we become like this. Sounds like it comes straight out of a horror movie, huh?” They didn’t answer. I grinned evilly. “Are you scared?”

Two taps. I froze, my eye sockets going wide as I stared into the darkness. “Did you forget two taps means no or something?” Two more taps.

“Are you messing with me?” Two taps.

“Trying to get my guard down then?” Two taps. I pulled my hand away from them. “What’re you trying to do then?” The sweet-smelling human muffled out something inaudible, their hands moving around as much as they could while tied up. “Okay, okay. Stop. I...have no idea what you’re trying to say.” They hummed out a small agreement. I sighed, blowing at my bangs before taking the human’s hands again.

“Do you know why Dee brought you here?” They hesitated, nervously tapping my hand. “It’s messed up, isn’t it? He usually doesn’t really do this kind of stuff. It’s actually...kind of weird. And I mean, why would he do this now? Emile and Remy have been with us for like twenty years now!” I mulled it over in my head, something not adding up, like it was just out of reach.

I groaned, pulling my hand away and standing up. “Whatever. Any reason Dee had for doing this is a good reason.” The lemon-scented human made a noise of protest, as if they knew Dee better than I did. “We’ll head to the store and get you some food and water tomorrow. For now, just try and get some rest. Later.” I saluted to them as I walked out the door, closing and locking it behind me.

I took a deep breath, sure that my heart would be hammering in my chest if it were still beating. Something was weird about those humans. It was like an idea was itching at the back of my skull, but for whatever reason I just couldn’t place it. But I couldn’t decide if it was just something that hasn’t clicked yet, or if I just didn’t want whatever it was to be true. Nonetheless, I shrugged off the strange feeling, heading back up the stairs to bed, running my hand across the Braille on my skin that had yet to be erased.

 

“Are you sure we should be doing this Remy?” Emile asked, a hint of apprehensiveness in his voice as he followed Remy down the stairs. “Relax, babe. I just wanna check something.”

Remy slipped silently down the stairs, unlocking and opening the door to the humans’ room. A muffled voice greeted him, one that Remy could swear was trying in vain to curse him out, but with no luck. Remy crouched in front of the humans, mulling things over in his head. Then he quickly ripped off one of their bandanas.

The human gasped in surprise, but Remy simply ignored him. “You’re Virgil’s soulmates, aren’t you?” Emile could feel the panic and anger radiating off the human, almost able to see the glare Remy was getting.

“What does it matter to you?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Remy said with a sigh, standing up and turning back to his boyfriend. “We should tell Virgil.” Emile spoke.

“...Let’s not.”

“What?”

“You heard the man, release us!” Virgil’s soulmate cried out. Remy shoved the bandana back over his mouth.

“You remember what Dee said about this whole  _ soulmates becoming Willows _ thing. They’re not becoming Willows! Besides, if Virgil finds out, he’s gonna let them go, then Dee would get mad and there would be humans out there that know about us. Not to mention how Vee would feel. I mean he finds out about this, and all his trust in Dee-Dee is gone, poof,  _ au revoir mi amigo _ !”

“Rem, you realize that that was two different—”

“It’s better if he didn’t know about this.” He cut off bluntly. Emile sighed. “I understand that, but...these are people’s lives we’re messing with for no real good reason. Not to mention they’re the people Virgil’s been pining after for years now, I mean...it’s just wrong.”

“Well it’s not like we haven’t done worse things, Em! We kill people so that we can eat them! I think you forgot about that! So what’s wrong with a little kidnapping?”

“It’s mental torture, Remy. Unlike with killing people, they’re going to be alive in here for...well who knows how long they’re going to be here!” Emile could sense the humans calming down a little bit, having seen our attention had left them for a moment as we argued. They were still so painfully scared, but Emile hoped that wouldn’t be for too long.

“Come on, Em. Besides, Virgil is still able to talk to them. It would be dangerous for him if they were to leave, don’t you think? They could write whatever they want and he’d see it and wouldn’t be able to get rid of it. And with how boy crazy he is for these guys, he’d believe anything they say.” Emile shuffled his feet nervously on the ground. “That’s a good point.” He muttered hesitantly. “But that still doesn’t excuse us kidnapping them!” Remy shook his head, crouching in front of Virgil’s soulmates. “They would still have writing on their arms, wouldn’t they?”

“Yeah, why?” Remy grabbed a rag from their supplies and wet it in the sink, taking the humans by the arms and scrubbing. “What’re you doing?” Emile asked tentatively.

“You remember when Virgil said how weird it was that they haven’t wiped off their arms yet?”

“You’re cleaning it off?”

“If Virgil gets suspicious, you know he’ll jump to this conclusion.” Emile hesitated, before grabbing a rag of his own and assisting. They worked in silence, scrubbing until they felt decent enough about the writing to call it gone. Remy stood up once he was done, stretching in place and dropping the rag to the ground. Emile put his rag away, walking over to Remy and leaning into him, allowing Remy to wrap his arms in a comforting embrace.

“If Vee finds out about this he’s gonna hate us.” Emile spoke softly. Remy held his boyfriend tight, slowly ushering him out of the room. He pulled away for a moment to lock the door, before pulling Emile slowly up the stairs.

“He won’t find out. There’s no one who can tell him but us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like Remy was really out of character for this oop-


	8. Chapter 6—Suspicious Behavior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil's beginning to feel very strange about this whole thing

I woke up the next morning, running a hand across my arm to find the Braille gone. I breathed a sigh of relief, glad to know nothing had happened to them. I got out of bed, shrugging on my jacket as I walked out the door.

Emile and Dee were already in the living room. Dee greeted me with a small hum, handing a cup of coffee and a plate of still-bloody flesh to me, taking a sip of something that smelled like a disgusting combination of a latte and human organs. I sat on the table, tearing into the cold flesh.

“So what’s the plan for today?” Emile asked.

“Get food for the humans. They’re probably starving.”

“We need to go out hunting as well. Our supply is running low.” I took a swig of coffee, washing the bloody taste out of my mouth. I had never gotten used to it. “I could go ask the humans what they’d want.” Dee seemed to tense up at that.

“Why don’t I do that, Virgil? You finish eating.” He spoke slowly. With that, he simply stood up and strode out of the room. I heard the quiet click of a lock and the creaky door open and close. I turned to Emile. “What’s up with him?”

“Oh, uh! Probably nothing, Vee! You know how Dee is!” I heard Emile shifting nervously in his chair, seeming to fidget with his clothing. Okay, so now they were both acting weird.

I heard footsteps down the stairs, followed by a loud, obnoxious yawn. Emile immediately perked up, running over. “Top of the morning, Remy!” Remy hummed, mumbling out a small good morning before asking for coffee.

“Hey Rem, do you know what’s up with Dee?” That seemed to wake him up. He coughed awkwardly, walking over to the coffee machine. “Maybe somethin’s up with you, Stormy sweetie. Have you thought of that? Because Dee seems perfectly fine to me!” He fumbled around a bit with the machine, before groaning.

“The coffee machine’s out of juice again. Virge, could you—”

“Not until you tell me what’s going on.” Remy scuffed his foot against the ground, drumming his fingers on the table. “Nothing’s  _ going on _ , babe. Everything’s fine! Now fix the coffee goddess please.”

“Why are you all acting so weird? Is it because of the humans? You guys weren’t acting like this yesterday!” Remy huffed, mumbling, “Maybe I’m acting so weird because I need my coffee,  _ Virgil _ .”

“I’ve seen you without coffee, that’s not an excuse.”

“Virgil, just...stop pushing this. Please.” Emile spoke hesitantly.

I grit my teeth, the room going dead silent. Remy silently crept over to the table I was on. I felt his hand come closer, before he snatched up my coffee. “Ha! Gotcha!”

“Hey! That’s mine!”

“Not anymore bitch!” I jumped off my table, tackling him to the ground. The coffee flew out of his hand, and by the sound of Emile’s shout of alarm, he had been drenched.

“Alright, let’s head to the store...what happened here?” Dee spoke as he walked back in. Remy and I stopped immediately. There was a moment of silence, before Remy chirped “Don’t worry about it, babe!” Dee sighed. “I leave for ten minutes and you make a mess. Incredible.” He turned away and walked up the stairs, shouting “Be ready in five minutes or I’ll beat your asses!” Remy scoffed, pushing himself up and brushing the dirt off his clothes. I listened as Dee’s footsteps slowly descended the stairs, biting my lip. I then picked myself up and followed.

Dee was emptying out his bag to prepare for our next shop-lifting spree, the sound of papers rustling as he pulled them out. “Do you need something, Virgil?” He asked in a soft, polite tone.

“Yeah. Well...kinda.” I gulped, suddenly feeling uneasy, but for what reason, I had no idea. This was Dee, I trusted him with my life. Or, undead life. Why did everything feel so weird? “So uh...how’re you feeling? About, you know...the humans being here?”

“I’m perfectly fine with it. Having some extra food that won’t spoil or rot is always worth the risk of taking human food for them and of them escaping. They’re a good back-up source of nutrients if we ever fall on hard times.”

“But...don’t you think this is a bit wrong? I mean, think of the morality of this whole thing!” Dee shoved some glass jars into his bag, not allowing a lull in the conversation. “Morality died along with our bodies, Virgil. The rights and wrongs that we were taught as humans mean nothing now. In this world that we’ve found ourselves in, killing a human is just like killing a cow. Do you need me to re-explain to you exactly what we are?”

I let out a small sigh, having not expected anything else from Dee. “But still, we used to be them! And I think that puts them a  _ little _ bit higher up than a cow! And what if they turn into Willows when they die? You think they’re gonna like being that way after we captured and terrified them?”

“I assure you, Virgil. They won’t become Willows.”

“How do you know that?”

“I’ve been around for decades, Virgil. I’ve learned the...tell-tale signs with people like those three. They’re...too old to be Willows, to say the least.” Something about his words seemed to make something click in my mind. But it was as if it were a switch that required many other switches to be turned on first. And all those switches were protected with plexiglass. That plexiglass being my will to stay oblivious.

“If you say so, but if they fuck us over, I’ll screech into your ear at night until you admit to being wrong.”

“Well either way, it seems like a lose for you. You’d be screeching for quite a while.” I smirked. Dee hummed, reverting back into his somewhat more leaderly persona quickly.

“Grab your bag. We should leave soon.”

“Alright, alright, fine.” He paced over to me, a hand ruffling my hair. I swat at him, letting a half-hearted hiss leave my lips. He merely chuckled, allowing me to leave and grab my bag. We then descended the stairs and headed off into the human world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i feel like im making this part of the story go a little fast but at the same time we aint even at the interesting part yet


	9. Chapter 7—Trying to Communicate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil goes to talk to the humans again. They try to communicate and it somehow leads to Virgil venting about Dee's behavior

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this chapter took a while. I've had a lot of homework lately and realized that a fandom I was obsessed with in middle school is still alive, so I've been kinda out of the Sanders Sides fandom for a little bit. But now that I'm back in SKEET SKEET BITCHES
> 
> ps I wrote this entire chapter either on the bus or during school. I mean I usually write my chapters that way now, but not the entire chapters yknow? and now I shall get back to my chem homework and suffering

The next night I crept down into the humans’ room to talk to them again. It felt as though something was drawing me towards them, like there was something I was missing that they could help me figure out. I unlocked the door and slipped in, closing it behind me. Once again the cinnamon-scented human growled at me. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. You don’t like me.”

I sat down with a huff in front of them, taking in their scents a second time. It was weird, I usually didn’t really care about humans all that much, and now here I was, reveling in their scents. I mentally shamed myself.

I hesitantly reached out for the sweet-smelling human’s hand, feeling him quickly take to my touch and hold my hand steadily. I felt a weird burning sensation cross my cheeks, then bit my lip in an attempt to make it stop. The human muffled something out, as incoherent as it had always been. I smirked. “I still don’t know what the hell you’re saying.”

I rested my head on my other hand, mulling over what I was doing in my head. What was I doing here? Why did I want to talk to these humans tonight anyway? I couldn’t think of a logical reason. I sighed, refocusing on the warmth of the sweet human’s hand.

“So...what do you like to do?” I went silent, before muttering a curse. “Right, you can’t talk. Uh…” The human muffled something out again, and I felt him bring my hand up slowly, making me touch the bandana covering his lips.

I blinked, quickly snatching my hand away. “I’m  _ not  _ untying you!” I growled. I pulled my knees close to my chest, hearing the human shuffle nervously.

Then the lemony human mumbled something out. I hesitated, before scooting closer to him and taking his hands in mine.

_ Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap tap.  _ “...If you’re trying Morse code, then sorry, I don’t know that.” There were two taps, presumably for no, then he began to trace something on my hand.  _ A, B, C.  _ Realization struck me, a sardonic laugh escaping my mouth.

“Seriously? Tapping out whatever letter of the alphabet it is? Man, are you desperate for communication!” There was a series of thirteen taps. “I swear to god…” I took a deep breath, feeling the thirteen taps repeated. This human was serious.

“M...” I grumbled out. Twenty-five more taps. “Y…” Fourteen taps. I pulled my hand away. “This’ll take too long.” The human groaned in exasperation.

“I’m sorry, would you prefer staying up until Dee finds us and gets upset?” I shuffled awkwardly, pulling my jacket tighter around myself. “I don’t even know why he brought you here.” I admitted quietly. “I mean...he’s been acting so weird recently. Like sure he’s usually pretty overprotective, but he’s never been  _ this _ overprotective. When I was trying to see my—“

I hesitated, feeling blush creeping up my face. I groaned, tugging at my hair a bit. “Actually, you know what? Maybe he had a point with that. My soulmates are still human, why was I trying to go after them? The hell was I thinking?” I felt all three humans’ gazes on me, but I didn’t care. I just needed to vent to someone.

“I tried to meet them plenty of times, but Dee always caught me and got me to head back here. And I get why he was trying to keep me away from them, but…I don’t know.” I hesitated, taking the sweet-scented human’s hands, feeling strangely calmed by the warmth and the light pressure his hands put on mine. “Something about you guys is making Dee act weird. It’s like there’s something about you he’s hiding from me.” I ran a thumb across the human’s knuckles, lost in thought.

“You couldn’t be someone I knew when I was a kid right? Yeah, you would have to be like 50 or 60 and I don’t think Dee’s the type of guy to kidnap a couple of baby boomers.” I smirked, before my smile dropped as I thought. “Oh god I’m technically a boomer.” I brushed that thought aside for an existential crisis later.

My grip on the human’s hand tightened. “There’s gotta be some reason he’s doing this. Something’s weird about you humans.” The humans began to muffle out responses again. I huffed,  trying to ignore their incoherent mumbling. “You know what? No, I’m just being paranoid. That’s it. That’s all this is. Dee’s not acting weird, he’s just trying to keep us safe from all these fucking humans trying to kill us. He’s doing fine! He did this for a reason that I  _ don’t _ need to know!”

I could hear the denial overwhelming my voice, but didn’t want to admit it. I trusted Dee, I truly did. He would never do anything to hurt me, or at the very least he never intends to hurt me. If he kidnapped these humans, it was because they were harmful to me or one of the others. I exhaled sharply, smiling somewhat relieved at the human in front of me. “That’s all this is, I’m just paranoid.”

Two taps. I froze, blinking facing the human. “What?” The human muffled out something that sounded a lot like a  _ no _ . “...Are you trying to say I’m not paranoid or that Dee’s up to something?” There was a pause, before a single tap signaled a yes. “So...both?” Another tap. “Well what reason would he have to kidnap you? ‘Cause I can’t think of a reason why.” More mumbling. “When are you going to realize I have no idea what the hell you’re saying?” He went silent. I sighed.

“You don’t know Dee. You don’t know his thought process. He knows what he’s doing and he does it for a reason.” I pulled my hands away from the human, shoving them into my pockets and standing up. “Whatever. I don’t care what you say. I trust Dee more than all three of you combined.” With that I stormed out of the room, closing and locking the door. I stared out into nothingness, feeling my heart sink into my stomach as I mulled over everything. I took a shaky breath, blowing at my bangs. I headed up the stairs to my room slowly, a sense of longing making me feel as if I were being pulled back down to the humans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ignore the very obvious plothole there, I realize it exists and I realize it has no explanation, but hey it just be like that


	10. Chapter 8—Realization

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil realizes what's been going on and has to decide what to do about it  
> aka the chapter in which Virgil finally gets it the fuckin dumbass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh thank lord jebus we've finally gotten to this part of the story, now things can really start to go down and uphill simultaneously.

I stared down at my arms, drumming my fingers on the table, as the sounds of Dee, Remy, and Emile's conversation filled the silence. It had been a long time since my soulmates had written anything. I was used to them sometimes going a day or two without writing anything down; since they started living together there was really no need for them to write on their arms anymore, unless they were talking to me, of course. It had been way too long now, though.

Dee left the room to give the humans some food, leaving Remy and Emile whispering to each other and giggling.

"I'm gonna write to them." Their conversation died immediately.

"Uh, write to who, Virgil?" Remy asked.

"My soulmates. They haven't said anything. Not since we got those humans and..." I slowed to a stop. I heard Emile laughed quietly, nervously. "Maybe there's a reason for that..." My hand drifted up to my mouth as I began chewing on my thumb. It would make sense...

"No, it's just a coincidence. I'm just paranoid!" Emile went to sit next to me, drawing in a steady breath. "But what if you aren't?" I tasted blood in my mouth, licking away the blood now seeping from my thumb. Emile put a hand on my back, rubbing gentle circles.

"Virgil, I...I know it's hard to believe, but Dee—" I smacked his hand away, standing up so fast my chair clattered to the ground. "He didn't do anything. Dee didn't do anything. Those humans aren't my soulmates. My soulmates are perfectly fine! They're just peachy!"

"Virgil—"

"Nope. Fuck off. This is fine! Everything's fine! My soulmates are NOT tied up in our storage room! They are perfectly fine!" With that I stormed up the stairs, slamming the door to my room. I huffed, collapsing onto my bed. I didn’t want it to be true, but to be honest, it seemed pretty likely. I ran my hand across my arms again, wishing for some sort of Braille to come up, even just a  _ hi, _ or a heart, or some sort of drawing. Nothing.

I reached over to my desk, rummaging through my pen collection, feeling the cap of one to identify it as my favorite. I thought of what to do, before I began to write.

_ Hey, are you guys okay? You haven’t written anything in a while. _ I waited for a few seconds.  _ Please be okay. _ Still nothing. I wasn’t sure what I had been expecting.  _ I love you. _ Nothing. I clutched the pen tightly in my hand. Maybe I should just wait for a few hours.

Night had come, and not a single prickling feeling had spread across my arms. I was still lying there in bed, having not really moved for the whole time I waited. I sighed, sliding out and standing up. The others were probably asleep by now. I clicked the pen I was holding, the small sound giving me a bit of comfort. Then an idea came to mind.

No one would know. I twirled the pen in thought, grabbing two more off of my desk. Dee wouldn’t know. I quietly opened my door, creeping down the hall and down the staircase. If it wasn’t true, then no one would have to know. I opened the door to the humans’ room. If it wasn’t true, then that would be that. Life could just go on like normal.

I sat in front of the humans, slowly taking the sweet-smelling human by the hands. He let out a small hum of confusion. I took a deep breath, bracing myself in case he tried to attack, then untied his hands.

Before he could do anything, I slammed one of my pens into his now-open hand. “Write to your soulmate.” I whispered. “Write down...a physical description of me.” The human hesitated for a moment, then I heard a click of a pen.

And there was that prickling feeling.

I felt my heart sink lower and lower as I ran my hand across the Braille, appearing under my fingers as the human—as Patton—continued to write.  _ Empty eye sockets, purple hair, pale skin. Black choker. _ I gulped, shakily reaching out for his hand, taking the pen away from him. I then moved on to the lemony human, untying his hands and handing him a pen. “Continue what he was writing.”

Logan did as I told.  _ Black and purple jacket. Purple shirt. Torn black jeans. Black combat boots. _ I really should’ve listened to my gut. I should’ve asked Dee more questions. Why hadn’t I realized this sooner? I took the pen away. That only left Roman. I untied the cinnamon-scented human’s hands, handing him a pen. “Draw something. Draw...a rose.” Then I added in a whisper, “You always draw roses on your hands.”

I felt something begin to form on my hand. Sure enough, when I went to touch it, the word  _ rose _ had formed next to it. “Fuck.” I breathed out. With his hands now free, Patton pulled the handkerchief off of his mouth.

“Virgil, please. Get us out of here.” I felt my body trembling, but I couldn’t tell why. Anger at Dee for doing this? Anger at myself for not doing something earlier? Fear that they knew what I was?

“Virgil?” I jumped, scrambling away as I heard Roman’s voice just a foot away from me. “I, uh…” I chewed at my lip, considering my options. Letting them go was the right thing to do; I knew that full well. But at the same time...would they ever treat me the same way again? Would they ever say they loved me, or that they wanted to see me? Sure, they weren’t able to say any of that now, with them kidnapped and trapped in a room, but for some reason that gave me more comfort than letting them go and having them not write those kind things to me.

Maybe that was why Dee did this. What Dee had done was wrong, and almost downright disgusting, but it was all to protect me. He had good intentions, even if his way of going about it wasn’t right. Part of me was tempted to just tie them back up and pretend I didn’t know.

But imagining what my three soulmates—my soulmates sitting right in front of me—looked like and how they were looking at my likely indecisive expression was unbearable. I drew in a steady breath, clenching my fists as I stood up and headed to the door. “Virgil, what’re you—”

“Stay here. I’ll be right back. I need to have a quick chat with a certain snake.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw is it weird to mention that I've started cosplaying for my own AU? I put some cosplay videos for Virgil in this story onto my Tiktok today and I think most of them may have been shadowbanned? idk but anyway I'm just putting that out there as a shameless plug, my username's just kaysignssins, like pretty much all my accounts everywhere


	11. Chapter 9—Parting Ways

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Virgil confronts Dee and Roman, Logan, and Patton escape

I sped up the stairs as quickly as I dared to, my body tense as I tried to figure out what I was going to say. I bit at my lip, running my hand across the wall until I reached Dee’s room. Blood was pounding in my ears; I was tempted to go back downstairs and just sneak them out of the tower, simple as that. But at the same time I just wanted to reason with Dee, maybe even get his permission to do this.

I opened the door, not even bothering to knock, walked up to his bed, and shook him awake. He grumbled, swatting at my hand a bit. “Dee, get the fuck up.” That made him pause for a moment—I didn’t usually use that kind of tone with him.

“Is something the matter, Virgil?” He spoke after a moment, sitting up in bed.

“Why’re my soulmates tied up in the storage room?” I spoke quickly, getting straight to the point. It seemed to throw Dee off momentarily. He cleared his throat, trying his best to go right back into his leaderly persona as quickly as possible.

“Ah, so you’ve figured that out.”

“Yeah, no shit Sherlock. What the hell is that about? The kidnapping was weird, sure, but kidnapping my soulmates specifically? That just makes this even more messed up!”

“How does that make this more messed up?”

“Because I actually know them!”

“Do you really, Virgil?” I froze, my mouth hanging open with unspoken words. “You’ve never met them in person until now, besides your little run-in at the store that one time. How can you say that you really know them?”

“Stop fucking with me, Dee. I’ve known them their whole lives.”

“And I’ve known you longer.” Dee walked up to me, taking my hand gently. “Do you truly trust and care for them more than me?”

I pulled my hand away. “I don’t know, okay? I just…” I groaned, running a hand through my hair, taking a deep breath and continuing, “Soulmates are supposed to complete you. I was hoping they could make me happy, and then you just fucking kidnap them? Did you seriously think that was a good idea?”

“Virgil, I assure you, I was trying to help. If you would just—”

“You fucked up the only thing that could make being like this bearable.” I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to reason with him. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear him out. I just wanted to be pissed. My blood was boiling, and if my heart were still working it would be pounding out of my chest.

Dee let out a tired sigh. I felt him try to take my hand again. “Virgil, please. Let me explain my reasoning and—” Without really thinking I shoved him back, sending a shock of electricity through his body, and raced out of the room before the guilt could catch up to me.

I sped down the stairs, nearly falling multiple times as my breathing grew shaky and ragged. I turned to my soulmates’ room, only to find the door flung open and the room empty.

  
  


“Are you sure this was a good idea, Roman?” Patton asked nervously between gasps of breath. “Would you rather stay there with those creepy-looking cannibals?” He responded, slowing to a speed-walk as he looked around the forest. 

The moment he had heard Virgil leave and walk up the stairs, he had bolted into action, grabbing Logan and Patton and running as far as they could. He had unfortunately gotten them lost, but hey, you win some, you lose some.

“Need I remind you that Virgil was one of those  _ creepy-looking cannibals _ ?” Logan responded.

“I know, Calculator Watch, I know. I’d just...rather not think of that right now! I mean…” He shivered, “we’ve been conversing with a murdering cannibal for our whole lives. Those times in high school when I called him a psychopath, that was supposed to be a joke!”

“Well from what we’ve seen and heard of him, he doesn’t appear to show very many signs of psychopathy; he clearly knows that what he’s doing is wrong and definitely has shown remorse in the past.”

“He’s still killed people, though! And eaten them! That’s just…” Roman let his mind wander for a moment, his stomach churning at the image of his soulmate eating humans, with razor sharp teeth tearing into their skin with ease, blood splattering onto his face, adding to the horror of his already-horrific torn open eyes. He wanted to puke at the thought.

Patton seemed to see how green Roman’s face had gotten, taking him by the arm and gently holding him up. “Let’s think about that later, okay? Now, how do we get out of this forest?”

  
  


I followed their scents, weaving through trees and branches as fast as inhumanly possible. A voice at the back of my head was screaming about how this was a bad idea, but I chose to ignore it. When I finally came across the source of the scents, I heard a yelp and leaves and branches snap as they began to run.

Instincts grabbed ahold of me, and I chased after them. They were fast, but I was still able to catch up in only a few minutes. I chose a target, and pounced, tackling Logan to the ground, my hands slammed onto his shoulders and my knees pinning down his legs.

He let out an involuntary scream, and I slowly blinked out of my stupor. I could practically smell his fear, coming off of him in waves. His body was trembling under me, and his breathing was shaky.

“Shit!” I clambered off of him quickly, stumbling to my feet and taking a few steps back. “I, uh...sorry! I didn’t mean to do that! I just...blanked out?” I cleared my throat awkwardly, hearing the rustle of leaves as he quickly picked himself up.

“You blanked out, chased us through the forest, then tackled me, without even realizing you were doing it?”

“...Yeah. O-Okay, look. This whole situation is really weird, and kinda messed up—”

“Kinda?” Roman muttered.

“—but...ah fuck it, I don’t know what to say. Just...you’re gonna get lost if you don’t know how to get outta here. So, I’m gonna lead you out of the forest and back to human civilization, and after that we can...part ways or whatever. I don’t care.” I ended quietly. They were silent for a moment, and I began mentally preparing myself for them to say no and run away.

“Okay.” Patton spoke quietly with uncertainty clear in his voice. I turned in his direction, and he continued. “Yeah, this whole thing is kinda...really messed up and scary. But...I don’t wanna give up on you just yet. You’ve...done things to people that...aren’t nice—”

“You can say I kill people, Patton. It’s not like I don’t know.”

“You’ve done bad things. Really bad things.” He continued to speak as if in denial. “But...you’re still the Virgil we grew up knowing, right?” He laughed nervously. I allowed myself to smile nervously back. Roman huffed in annoyance, but stayed silent.

“Do you mind leading us out of here now, Virgil?” Logan spoke, seeming to ignore everything Patton had said; whether it was because Patton had said everything he was thinking or instead because he didn’t agree with Patton, I couldn’t tell. I agreed and led them silently through the woods.

Once we reached the edge of the forest and the lights of the city had begun making the world brighter, we said our goodbyes. Or rather, Patton, Logan and I said our goodbyes. I could feel Roman’s glare as Logan hesitantly shook my hand farewell, and as Patton gave me a very clearly tense and somewhat terrified hug. I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face at the gesture, though.

I listened as they left, straining my ears as if hoping to hear their footsteps for just a bit longer. But soon enough it had grown too quiet and distant to hear. A light bit of their scents still lingered in the air, but that quickly dissipated as well. I sighed, slowly turning back around to head back the way I had come. Then I froze.

I had nowhere to go except for the tower. The tower that Dee lived in. Dee who I had argued with, electrocuted, then ran away from.

_ Things are gonna be real awkward from now on. _ I couldn’t help but wonder how much better life would be if I could just spend a few calm minutes with Roman, Patton, and Logan. With a sigh, I began slowly walking back to the tower, that sense of longing only growing stronger the closer I got.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now the real fun can begin


	12. Chapter 10—Remy Attempts Therapy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After returning to the tower, Remy tries his best to console Virgil while Emile works with Dee. Meanwhile, Roman, Logan, and Patton return home and try to figure out how to move on from this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> didn't expect a Royality argument to happen during this chapter but it's a thing now and Logan was just kinda there to witness it

You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. By the time I had gotten back to the tower, Dee had recovered from the shock and woken up Emile and Remy. I found the three sitting at the dining table, whispering amongst each other. When they heard me enter, they went dead silent, as if waiting for me to say something. I pulled my jacket tighter around me and walked past them, climbing up the stairs and into my room, not saying a word.

I closed the door, pulling my desk chair over and wedging it under the doorknob, ensuring that no one could get in. Satisfied, I turned to my bed, falling unceremoniously onto the old mattress. My hand drifted lightly across my arm, reading the Braille still written there from earlier, my heart seeming to sink lower with every dot.

I had met them, I had finally met them. I had touched them and even hugged Patton. They had been real, and tangible, and there, right in front of me. And now they were gone. The chances of me seeing them again was next to nil. Even worse, I had left a more than awful impression of me in their minds.

The doorknob jimmied a bit, before whoever was on the other side gave up and knocked on the door. I huffed, simply turning over and covering my head with my blanket. The knocking persisted at the same tempo for another few seconds, then whoever was on the other side began banging on the door. I groaned, covering my head with my pillow, hoping they would just leave me alone.

“Hey, lemme in, bitch!” Remy shouted from the other side.

“Fuck off!” There was an offended gasp, before he let out an annoyed “Fine!” I pulled the pillow away from my face, eyebrows raising as I heard his footsteps go back down the stairs. Didn’t expect that to work. I curled up tightly under my covers, clutching the pillow tightly, hoping to try and sleep away my sorrows.

Then there was a loud  _ CRASH _ of glass breaking. I jumped up in bed, scooting back until my head smacked against the wall. “Hey, Vee! We need to have a talk!”

“What the fu—Did you just smash through my window?”

“That’s not important babe.”

“How did you even get up here in the first place?”

“A girl’s got her ways.” He took a long slurp of coffee, before plopping down next to me. “So, let’s talk about your love life.”

“How about we don’t?” I mumbled.

“What was goin’ on for the past like week or two was...an experience, don’t ya think?”

“Yeah, duh.”

“And you probably feel pretty shitty right now, don’t ya?”

“Is there a point to this, or did you just break my window for no reason?” Remy took another swig of coffee, mulling it over for a moment.

“Yeah, I dunno. Emile wanted me to come up here and talk to you while he talked to Dee. But, look—” He shifted on my bed, pulling his feet up and sitting criss-cross facing me. “—This whole situation is really weird. For all of us, but mostly you. I mean, Jesus, your soulmates are human and are gonna stay human, ‘til death do we part and all that.” I bit at my lip, the idea of outliving them causing my stomach to twist into knots.

“But I mean, it’s not that bad, right? You’ve gone on this long without ‘em, and if they don’t like you like this then they don’t deserve you, sweetie.”

“It makes sense that they don’t like me like this! Who the hell would want to knowingly date a cannibal?”

“Well I mean some people are into that.” He muttered.

“They’re not!”

“What’s that thing Dee told Emile back when he had just become a Willow?” He snapped his fingers for a moment in thought. “Oh yeah! It’s not cannibalism. Cannibalism is eating someone the same species as you. Are we humans? No! Therefore, it isn’t cannibalism, it’s just doin’ what we gotta do to survive. Boom, problem solved! Just write that on your arm!”

“Oh yeah, sure thing! “ _ Hey guys, don’t worry. I’m not a cannibal! I’m not even human!” _ I’m sure that’ll fix everything!” I spoke, my arms waving around sarcastically.

Remy groaned. “Well unless you have a better idea, you don’t have to be a sarcastic bitch about it.” He flopped down in bed next to me; I turned away, crossing my arms tightly across my chest.

“Maybe this’ll turn out better than you think.” He spoke after a moment of hesitation. I didn’t want to dare put any hope into that idea.

 

“So…” Patton spoke quietly, “what do we do now?” Roman closed the door behind them, sighing in relief as he looked around their apartment. “Well, we could either move far away from here, or, uh...call the police, I guess.”

“Would the police even believe us, though?” Logan asked. “What reason would they have to believe that we were truly captured by a group of blind, murdering cannibals, one of which happens to be our soulmate?”

“I don’t know! Maybe we just don’t tell them some parts?”

“Or maybe we don’t tell them at all.” The two turned to Patton. He was staring down at the ground, seeming to be debating their options just as much as Logan and Roman were, just seeing things in a different light.

“Patton, soulmate or not, he’s still a murderer. That whole time he and his whole group probably just saw us as livestock or something! That one guy with the bowler hat even said they were keeping us alive in case they had problems  _ hunting _ ! They literally call killing people hunting!”

“But Virgil let us go. He helped us out of the forest.”

“Not after tackling Logan! You heard him scream, he was terrified!”

“I was not, he had just...startled me. And from what I remember, I did not scream.” Logan muttered out excuses, adjusting his glasses awkwardly.

“I still don’t want to give up on him! He deserves a shot, and we need to give him that!” Roman shook his head, running a hand through his hair.

“Alright, fine. You can keep thinking of him like that, Pat. I won’t try to convince you otherwise. But personally, I’d like to stay away from him and any of his partners in crime from here on out.” With that, he walked past Patton to their bedroom, hoping to try and get some sleep. Logan, then eventually Patton, followed soon after. As he lied there, staring into the darkness of their room, a plan formulated in Patton’s head.

A few days later, after work, Patton stared out at the forest. He took a deep breath, his knuckles turning white as he clutched the straps of his backpack, and he walked in, in search of the tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remy's weird to write in serious/providing comfort situations. It's like how do I get that Remy "I'm better than you you're a bitch" attitude while at the same time have him provide comfort


	13. Chapter 11—Emile and Patton

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emile goes out into the forest to talk to Patton as they walk to the tower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter accidentally became all filler, but I mean, it also gave a bit about Emile's backstory, so that's cool I guess

The moment the human stepped within eighty feet of the tower, we were on the defense. Their scent was too mixed with all the other scents of the forest, making it a bit difficult to discern who exactly it was. But after a few more steps, I began to recognize the sweet aroma.

“Shit! What’s he doing here?”

“Who now?” Remy asked. Emile thought for a moment, sniffing the air a bit before gasping. “Wait, that’s one of your soulmates, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” I mumbled out. Dee was silent. I was unable to tell what he could be feeling, but I feared for the worst. He took a deep breath, in and out.

“Virgil, what would you like to do about him?” His voice was monotone and emotionless; it almost scared me. I tilted my head to the ground, Patton’s scent growing stronger as he came closer. He was clearly lost, but he was making his way, slowly but surely. Our only options were to leave the tower until he was gone, try and convince him to leave, or—

“I have an idea!” Emile chirped. “Which of us do you think is the least threatening-looking?” We all went silent, expecting him to answer his own question. Only after a full minute of silence did Remy speak up.

“You’re kidding, right? Babe, you are the most normal-looking out of all of us.”

“Yeah, like seriously, only your eyelids were torn up when you turned.” I spoke.

“You did have the most...peaceful death out of all of us.” Dee added quietly. Emile made a small noise as if about to object, before humming quietly. “Yeah, I guess dying in a hospital bed surrounded by people I loved is a lot better than what happened to you guys.” He went silent for a moment, likely reminiscing about his time when he was alive.

“I’m gonna go talk to him. If he’s here to try and kill us, which he most likely isn’t here to do, I’ll ask him to leave. We don’t have to overcomplicate this.” I could feel his smile directed at me, and couldn’t stop my lips from smiling back. Emile just had that kind of ability. He walked over to the door, pulling it open and close, before running off through the forest.

 

Patton froze when he saw the blind man with glasses walking through the woods in his direction, a white cane moving back and forth in front of him. It was one of Virgil’s friends, the one that had wanted to tell Virgil that the three of them were his soulmates in the beginning. Even though he felt a bit better about this guy compared to the others, he still felt uncomfortable and nervous.

“Good evening! Do you how do?” Patton blinked, staring at the man for a moment. “Uh...good?” He peeped.

“That’s good. Is it alright if I walk with you?”

“Oh, uh, sure thing!” The man quickly fell in line with him, seeming to guide him towards their tower. “So you’re one of Virgil’s soulmates? He recognized your scent.” Patton couldn’t help but shudder at the thought. The idea of Virgil being able to track him down and know where he was like a bloodhound was just a bit unsettling.

“Yep! That’s me! I was hoping we could maybe talk a bit, now that I’m not, you know...tied up.” The man flinched at that, giving Patton a bit more comfort, strangely enough.

“I’m really sorry about that. It would’ve been wrong even if you weren’t Virgil’s soulmates. I had a...semi-professional therapy session with Dee about it, and he knew he shouldn’t have done it and he’s gonna try and make it up to you. It took him five hours to admit it and come around, he’s really stubborn, but...he doesn’t lie to me. At least from what I know.”

Patton watched as the man turned his cane over in his hand, his eyeless gaze seeming to be fixed on the handle. From what Patton knew of that Dee guy, he seemed willing to lie to anyone to do or get what he wanted. Then again, he had been kidnapped by him, so maybe he had a biased opinion. He didn’t know Dee for very long, so what would he know?

“Let’s just try to start over.” He spoke slowly. “I’m Patton. And you are?”

The man smiled. “Emile. Nice to properly meet you.” They walked in silence for a moment, the feeling between them lingering in a strange in-between of awkwardness and somewhat comfort.

“By the way, I’ve been wondering,” Patton spoke up, trying to break the ice, “why are you wearing glasses when you don’t see?” Emile looked a bit surprised by the question, before laughing and pushing his glasses up his nose.

“When I first met Dee, he went on this whole dramatic spiel about Willows and what we are and all that. Then he tried to touch my eyes and ended up touching my glasses instead. He was so surprised he hissed and fell over. It was adorable!”

Emile thought for a moment, a smile on his face. “Then when I met Remy and found out he was my soulmate, he tried to flirt with me and said that my glasses looked cute. But neither of us can see, so it was a bit of a fail. As suave as he is, he’s not too good at non-sexual flirting. It was cute, though.”

Seeing Emile from this point of view instead of looking up at him while tied up was strange. It was like seeing a murderer and a therapist at the same time, which he supposed was actually pretty accurate. Silence filled the area again, until they finally reached the tower. Emile had Patton stop at the door, turning to face him with a concerned expression.

“Patton, I’m not asking you to forgive Dee, I know that’d be...a little difficult, especially now. If it makes you more comfortable, I can ask him to stay in his room. Remy and I can stay with him while you get your time with Virgil.”

Patton hid his urge to scream his thanks to him. While he was mostly fine with Emile himself by now, Remy and especially Dee absolutely terrified him, no matter how freaked out Dee had been of Emile’s glasses and how bad at flirting Remy was. “That sounds good, so long as they don’t mind.”

“Okie dokie, you just stay out here, I’ll have Virgil let you in once we’re out of your hair!” With that, Emile walked in, closing the door slowly behind him. After a few moments Patton heard a bit of muffled groaning inside, sounding as if it were getting higher up and more distant as whoever it was stomped up the stairs.

Patton took a deep breath, looking forward, his heart pounding in his head. The door opened, and there Virgil stood.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw if anyone's confused, i mentioned in part 2 of the prologue that the more you've suffered, the more torn up your eyes and cheeks are when you become a Willow. Whatever disease Emile had (haven't decided what it was yet) made his life extremely painful, but since he always had his loved ones by his side, it made his life a bit less painful, and as such his cheeks aren't even torn up, just his eyelids. just got worried that it wouldn't make any sense the way I wrote it :/


	14. Chapter 12—Well this is Awkward...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On this episode of "Virgil is Bad at Peopling" we tune in on Virgil attempting to have a conversation with one of his soulmates and, despite how horrible he is at it, it somehow ends okay

“So, uh...”

“Hey...” I looked over at Patton, letting out an awkward laugh. “Hey...” We went silent again, unsure of what to say. I heard him shifting from one foot to the other uneasily.

“So do you, uh...” I gestured inside vaguely, clearing my throat, “wanna come in, or just...stand there?”

“Oh, yeah!” He followed me in hastily, taking a seat across from me at the dining table. I pulled my knees up to my chest, his gaze feeling like laser beams burning through my face.

“Nice place you have.” Patton tried to start a conversation. I quickly tried to come up with a response.

“Yeah, I bet it looks a lot better now that you’re not...tied up and stuff.”  _ Oh god, I wish I had just gone to hell like a normal human. _ Patton went silent. I was fully ready for him to realize that he wasn’t safe here and make a run for it.

He tapped on the table a few times, before speaking again. “Anyway! How have you been?” We don’t talk about the kidnapping, got it.

“Could be worse, I guess. I could be dead.” I wanted to smack myself. I was already dead. “How—How about you, Patton?”

“Been doing pretty good.” He answered quickly, seeming to want to turn the conversation as fast as possible. “I’ve been really busy with work lately, so I haven’t really had any time to visit.”

“You actually wanted to come to this place?”

“Well...this is your home, isn’t it? I wanted to see you.” I felt my cold heart flutter in my chest. I tried to hide my face from him, standing up and heading to the fridge.

“Do you want anything to drink?” I opened the fridge, being met with the smell of iron and rotting flesh. I slammed it shut. Oh yeah, there was a dismembered body in there, stuffed in between some red bull and alcohol, the only other things we really kept in there. I turned to the counters, hoping something on there would save me. “We have, uh...water?”

Patton seemed to understand what was going on and said in a high-pitched, squeaky tone, “Yeah. Water sounds nice.” I grabbed two water bottles out of our supply, hands trembling and face burning.

“Hey, how about we go talk somewhere else? I mean, this area is great, but...it’s a little stuffy.” I nodded stiffly. “Yeah, sounds good.”

Patton led me outside, opting to sit with his back against the tower wall. I took a seat a few feet away from him, pulling my hood over my head in shame.

“Hey, Vee?” My throat dried up.

“Yeah?”

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but I’ve been kinda curious. So...how did you die?” Every muscle in my body tightened, the choker around my throat feeling as if it were growing tighter and tighter.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” I mumbled out.

“Okay! That’s fine! I won’t ask.” Patton was quick to try and soothe me, the grass and dirt under him rustling as he moved. I huffed, taking a small sip of my water to try and calm myself.

“Is it alright if I ask about the others? Or would it be better if I just asked them myself?”

“Eh. They don’t really mind.”

“Okay...then, how did they die?”

“Remy was stabbed outside of a strip club by his ex. He makes jokes about it now, but when he first became a Willow his main goal was revenge.” I snickered, trying to hide it behind my hand. “It was wild when we met his ex while we were hunting. He had so much fun torturing him.” I could only imagine the horrified look Patton was giving me, but hey, I was just describing how things really were. How dark we were (and still are).

“Emile had colon cancer; it wasn’t really caught until it had progressed too far for any real treatment. He was in pain for less than a year, and he died surrounded by his loved ones, so he doesn’t feel as bad about his death as the rest of us did with ours.” I hesitated for a moment, wondering if Dee would be okay with me talking about his story.

“Dee was alive in the 1800’s. He was also studying witchcraft and paganism. In a very...not so open town. A friend of his found an altar to one of the deities he worshipped in his room and promised to keep it a secret. But then he went ahead and told some people about it, and suddenly Dee was getting beat to death by his own parents.”

“Ouch.” Patton winced in sympathy.

“Yeah. After he became a Willow, the first thing he did was hex the guy, and every time he tells me this story he hums something about the three-fold law being bullshit; I have no idea what that is—it might be a personal belief—at this point I’m too afraid to ask, but yeah.” I fidgeted with my sleeves as the words fell out of my mouth.

“I guess that’s why he didn’t like us too much...being human and all.”

“Eh. Could be one of the reasons. I mean, it’s been 200 years and he still doesn’t even allow  _ us _ to watch him do any of his stuff. Pretty sure he keeps his altars hidden in his closet or somethin’.” I shrugged, pulling my jacket tighter around myself. The air had begun getting cooler—the sun must have been setting.

Before I could point it out to Patton, he asked another question. “What do you usually do for fun around here?” I rubbed the nape of my neck, head tilted to the sky. “Just...stay in my room. Read, watch some movies, go on the Internet. Stuff like that.”

“You have internet here?”

“At this point, I basically am the internet. My powers are the only thing keeping the electricity running, and I’m the only one smart enough with modern tech to figure out a way of connecting to the Internet. Which is weird, considering I was raised in the 1960s.” Patton hummed, drumming his fingers on his thigh as he thought.

“You have Netflix?”

“You mean that  _ Netflix and chill _ thing Remy talks about?” Patton laughed, before pulling out his phone and tapping my arm with it.

“Why don’t we just hang out and watch some shows? Inside, it’s getting kinda dark, and cold...and scary.”

I sighed, standing up. “Alright, if you’re okay with it.” He hopped up enthusiastically, taking me gently by the arm and allowing me to lead him to my room, acting only a bit like a mother hen as we climbed up the stairs.

I blocked the door off with a chair once the two of us stepped in. “Hey, Virgil?”

“Hmm?”

“What happened to your window?”

“An...accident flew through it.”

“What kind of accident?”

“Remy. Remy was the accident.” Patton whispered a small  _ oh _ , before slowly drifting over to my bed, sitting down and supposedly looking through his phone for something to watch. “Let’s just go with Voltron.”

“The fuck is that?” I laid down on my bed behind him. I heard some sort of opening begin playing, and he shifted, lying down next to me and holding his phone up between us.

I felt my face begin burning again as I felt his shoulder against mine, trying my best to focus on the audio instead while my brain continued to scream about the warmth of his body next to mine.

His arm had dropped onto my chest, the show having been long forgotten. His breathing was slow and steady. His head was tucked into my chest, a bit of drool seeping into my shirt. He was asleep. Around me of all people. We had only been three episodes in, too; he must have been tired.

I carefully reached for his face, fingers meeting the plastic of his big round glasses, and slowly pulling them off of his face, putting them on my bedside dresser.

A ding came from both of our phones, a text in our group chat, I guess. I checked my phone; Roman had begun spamming the chat asking where Patton was, followed by Logan asking him to calm down, and Roman spamming even more because of that.  _ You said you’d be home and safe by ten! It’s eleven! Please tell me you’re okay! You’re okay, right? They didn’t kill and eat you, did they? _

I sighed, texting back explaining what was happening.  _ As if I believe you! What have you done to my poor prince? _ I groaned, causing Patton to mumble something, and me to go silent again. I thought for a moment, before going to my camera and taking as best of a picture of Patton as I could, sending it to Roman with the simple caption of  _ He’s asleep, dipshit. _ Roman went strangely quiet after that.

_ Kiss him goodnight for the two of us. _ I blinked, asking Siri to read the line again and again, before coming to the conclusion that it was indeed real. I turned to Patton, running a hand slowly through his soft hair. I bit at my lip, before slowly bringing my head closer to his.

With a gentle peck at the top of his head, I whispered a soft, “Goodnight, Pat.” I then turned back to my phone and, in my flustered state, answered with  _ “The deed is done,”  _ resulting in multiple concerned messages from Roman.

I simply turned mine and Patton’s phones to silent, carefully running my hand through Patton’s hair again, and slowly drifting off to sleep myself, feeling warm and content for the first time in years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oop I have a lot to say about this chapter  
> I originally didn't want to give Emile a type of cancer, but I couldn't find anything else that fit as well, so I just went with what I know. My mom died of colon cancer, so I have the best idea of how that works compared to any other type.  
> As for Dee being a pagan witch, I had originally planned for him being accused of witchcraft back during the Salem trials, then realized that that was 400 years ago, not 200, so that wouldn't work. And since I just started my path through witchcraft very recently, I figured, might as well just make him a pagan witch.  
> Also, Voltron was good until they decided to destroy the Castle of Lions, and you can fight me on that! (actually please don't, confrontation scares me)


End file.
